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Common Sense
By Beau Sahaj '' Common Sense'' was an incredibly influential political pamphlet written by Thomas Paine and published on Jan. 10, 1776. According to Merrill Jensen, it is "perhaps the all-time best-seller in American history" (Sigleman). THESIS: 'The pamphlet ultimately persuaded most of America to favor independence from Britain, and created a huge sense of anti-British sentiment in the colonies. Setting '' Common Sense was published in January of 1776, a period of social and political turmoil in the colonies. To gain some perspective, it was published about a year and a half after the first continental congress, 7 months after the battle of Bunker Hill, and 6 months after the continental congress created the olive branch petition, but 7 months 'before '''the Declaration of independence was signed. Colonists at the time were aware of the injustices the British had put on them, but most colonial anger was directed at the Parliament, and the idea of total independence was rare before ''Common Sense's publication. The beginning battles of the revolution were being fought, and Boston was still under British siege. Common Sense became a powerful social force throughout the colonies, encouraging soldiers and civilians to think of Britain as tyrannical and to think the colonies needed complete independence (Tindall, Shi pg 200). Overview Thomas Paine came to America from Britain in 1774, described as "an ingenious man" by Benjamin Franklin. Inspired by the injustices he had seen among the working class in Britain, he used the situation in America at the time to persuade the nation towards independence by writing Common Sense ''in 1776, at the precise moment when it would have the most impact. Benjamin Rush, a politician in favor of separation, convinced Paine to write the paper anonymously, so that the ideas could be expressed but nobody's career would be hurt by it (Sigleman). Common Sense'' was radically different from most political ideas of the day, as Paine argued that America deserved Complete and total independence from Britain. He based this argument in opinions that everyday people could understand, such as Britain's King George III and monarchy in general being tyrannical, the British government being corrupt and not caring at all about the colonists, and, perhaps most famously, that an island cannot rule a continent (Ellis, pg 41-42). He then goes on to argue how America can achieve independence, pointing out our strengths and providing non-philosophical arguments on the benefits of separation. Attack on Monarchy A large part of what made Common Sense '' so radical was that it attacked the idea of monarchy itself. Paine argued that the power given to a king would always corrupt him, and the very presence of a parliament indicates that the king can't be trusted and has to be controlled. He paints George III as a distant, oblivious king with no sympathy for the colonists, whose only desire is to make money at the cost of others (Paine). "Why is the constitution of England sickly, if not because monarchy hath poisoned the republic, the crown hath engrossed the commons? ... In England a king hath little more to do than to make war and give away places; which in plain terms, is to impoverish the nation and set it together by the ears. A pretty business indeed for a man to be allowed eight hundred thousand sterling a year for, and worshipped into the bargain! Of more worth is one honest man to society and in the sight of God, than all the crowned ruffians who ever lived. "...And though (the people) might say "We choose you for our head," they could not, without manifest injustice to their children, say "that your children and your children's children shall reign over ''ours forever." Because such an unwise, unjust, unnatural compact might, perhaps, in the next succession put them under the government of a rogue or a fool." - An excerpt from Common Sense He goes on to criticize the very nature of kingship and hereditary succession, claiming that kings are automatically detached from the people they rule and thus don't care and don't want to care about their needs. Once again, Paine's sense of timing in publishing the pamphlet was perfect, because the colonists felt very oppressed by the government. This gave someone to point the blame at: the king instead of the Parliament. Paine's arguments perfectly complemented the sour feelings of the colonists toward Britain, with the representation and taxation controversies still fresh in the minds of everyone. The colonists' pleas to Britain were falling upon deaf ears, and suddenly, Common Sense ''provided the explanation! It said that the colonies weren't getting the rights and benefits they deserved because the monarchy was conceited, corrupt, and fundamentally unable to rule effectively (Paine). He also denounced one of monarchy's greatest supposed strengths (at the time). Proponents of kings claimed that hereditary seccession prevented civil war and kept the nation secure. Paine called this "the most barefaced falsity ever imposed upon mankind." By his count, there were thirty kings that ruled up until his time, and there had been eight civil wars and nineteen rebellions during that same time period. (Compare that to America's 44 presidents, but only 1 civil war and only a handful of uprisings.) He specifically cites the War of the Roses, between the Lancaster and York houses, that left England in a prolonged state of conflict and killed countless people, all over the next king in the hereditary succession system (Paine). Also, the best insult ever: "The first King of England, of the present line (William the Conquerer) was a Frenchman, and half the Peers of England are descendants from that same country; wherefore, by the same method of reasoning, England ought to be governed by France." -Thomas Paine in ''Common Sense Plan for America In the third section, "Of the present ability of America, with some miscellaneous reflexions," Paine details his plans for the revolutionary war. This section serves to convince all the doubters that America really could defeat Britain in a war for independence. He talks about the army and especially why America should build a navy, and why we would be effective at it. His main points (from the pamphlet): *All the colonies '''united would have enough men and force to overthrow the British. *Spending some money on a war and getting independence is much better than spending a ton of money obeying British taxes or having them repealed. *For even a fraction of England's national debt, America could build a top-rate navy. A national debt would bind the country together and allow us to have greateer access to world markets, and we would get a navy on top of that. As long as there wasn't any interest, creating a national debt should be a priority. *He outlines the cost of all the ships in the British navy in 1757, when it was strongest: 3,500,000 pounds sterling. With our vast natural resources (our main exports are iron, timber, pitch, etc), we could build a navy as powerful as England's without anyone's help. *No country in Europe, Africa, or Asia is so uniquely suited to shipbuilding, with America's vast coastline and abundant resources. If we built a navy, no other world power wold be able to seriously challenge us with their navy. *The british navy is spread ot over the world, and only one tenth is fit for duty, and only one fifth of that number can be easily prepared to fight at one time. *Most people look at Britain's entire fleet and say we can't fight it off because it's so large, but that is misleading (see the previous point). If a navy 5% as big as Britain's whole navy was built and kept in America, we would be more than a match for all the ships the British could send here. *Once we win independence, we can't expect Britain to continue protecting us from pirates and privateers, so an American navy would be indispensible. Impact "My countrymen, I know from their form of government and steady attachment heretofore to royalty, will come reluctantly into the idea of independency, but time and persecution brings many wonderful things to pass, and by private letters which I have lately received from Virginia, I find Common Sense is working a powerful change there in the hearts of men" -George Washington (McCullough, pg 112) Within months of being published, the pamphlet had circulated over 150,000 copies, and was the most widely pamphlet in the colonies. Many credit the wide readership and its revolutionary spirit as the catalyst that resulted in a full split from Britain instead of colonial policy reforms. In a time when pamphlets were the main way of spreading ideas, Common Sense was a new level of information spreading. Most people had heard of it, and a lot of the politicians of the time were familiar with it. It was truly revolutionary in how many people it reached and how well it spread its message. It was the issue of the day: the topic of discussion for everyone all around the colonies (Schutz). When Americans were split over independence, Common Sense ''is credited as producing a major shift in public opinion. Before the pamphlet was published, it was widely accepted, even by some founding fathers, that our problems with Britain could be solved with policy changes, and America would continue to be a British colony. The idea of full independence wasn't taken seriously, and almost nobody advocated for it. After it was published, full autonomy was widely approved of, and many politicians, including the founding fathers mentioned earlier, now supported independence. Anyone calling for an American monarchy system faded away as Paine made it clear that a republic was the only form of government fit for the new country. More importantly, it slandered the image of King George III. in 1775, most colonists viewed the king in a good light, as a father figure. ''Common Sense painted him as a tyrannical and oppressive brute, who only cared about giving himself more money and power. The colonists fully adopted that opinion, and their perceived source of the problems shifted from Parliament to the king. Military commanders stopped making toasts to him, people stopped praising him, and he was almlost universally perceived as an evil and arrogant fool (Davis). Of course, Americans didn't want to be ruled by such a man, and this is where Common Sense shines as a catalyst of the Revolutionary war. It motivated its readers to support the cause for independence, because they knew that whatever government they could come up with would be a million times better than being ruled by a king! He does say that England had a few good kings and queens, but the system is flawed overall, and the number of bad and mediocre rulers far outweighs the number of good ones. Paine also called for democracy as the ideal form of government that the new America should have. His arguments against monarchy killed any chance for an American king, and he praises fully representative government as the best type that a civilized nation could have. Why it Worked Common Sense was remarkably different than most other political pamphlets of the day. Other pamphlets were worded in legal jargon, not meant to be fully understood by common people reading them. They had a target audience of lawyers and politicians, basically. Paine wrote a very different style of pamphlet, using the vernacular of normal people in place of fancy technical speech. This made it unbelievably accessible to nearly everyone in America. As 'The Common Style of Common Sense' describes, "It has been estimated that a copy of Common Sense was read by virtually every literate man, woman, and child in the colonies and was read to a substantial portion of the illiterates." It reads like a book, using simple but forceful language, and it's never dry or hard to read. Everybody could relate to it: reading it is like hearing a particularly powerful speech, and it moved its readers more than any other publication at the time (Sigleman). His arguments were filled enlightenment ideas. He argued for independence on the basis of natural rights, such as freedom from oppression and unfair taxation as well as the right to have a type of government that the people want. He used the Bible as a base, denouncing kings as putting themselves above everyone else when God created everyone to be equal. If the king was trampling on everyone's natural rights, then those people were justified in overthrowing him or creating a different government. Those were ideas that people could understand on a fundamental level, and this ultimately why Paine's work won out over loyalist literature. People supported what they could understand the best, and the readability of Common Sense took anti-British feelings in the colonies to a new level because of its accessibility and raw reasoning power (Sigleman). Notable Excerpts (all out of Common Sense) The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth. 'Tis not the affair of a city, a country, a province, or a kingdom, but of a continent—of at least one eighth part of the habitable globe. 'Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected, even to the end of time, by the proceedings now. Now is the seed time of continental union, faith and honor. The least fracture now will be like a name engraved with the point of a pin on the tender rind of a young oak; the wound will enlarge with the tree, and posterity read it in full grown characters. Every thing that is right or natural pleads for separation. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, 'TIS TIME TO PART. Even the distance at which the Almighty hath placed England and America, is a strong and natural proof, that the authority of the one, over the other, was never the design of Heaven. Europe is too thickly planted with kingdoms to be long at peace, and whenever a war breaks out between En gland and any foreign power, the trade of America goes to ruin, because of her connection with Britain. The next war may not turn out like the last, and should it not, the advocates for reconciliation now will be wishing for separation then, because, neutrality in that case, would be a safer convoy than a man of war. But where says some is the King of America? I'll tell you Friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal Brute of Britain. Yet that we may not appear to be defective even in earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth placed on the divine law, the word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve as monarchy, that in America THE LAW IS KING. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other. But lest any ill use should afterwards arise, let the crown at the conclusion of the ceremony be demolished, and scattered among the people whose right it is. It is not in numbers, but in unity, that our great strength lies; yet our present numbers are sufficient to repel the force of all the world. I have never met a man, either in England or America, who hath not confessed his opinion, that a separation between the countries, would take place at one time or another. Don't confuse this with Paine's other works, such as The ''Rights of Man or the ''American Crisis papers ("These are times that try men's souls...") Citations Paine, Thomas. "Common Sense." 2009: 14. MAS Ultra: School Edition. Ebsco Host. Digital. 23 Oct. 2013. Davis, Michael. "Common Sense." Americans at War. Ed. John P. Resch. Vol. 1: 1500-1815. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 33-36. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 1 Nov. 2013. Sigleman, Lee, Martindale, Colin, McKenzie, Dean. "The Common Style of 'Common Sense.'" Computers and Humanities 1997: 373-379. Digital. Ellis, Joseph J. American Creation. ''New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007. Print.'' Zinn, Howard'' A People's HHistory of the United States.'' New York: Harper & Row, 1980. Print. McCullough, David. 1776. NewYork: Simon & Shuster, 2005. Print. "Thomas Paine." Drawing. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 136. Gale Virtual Reference Library. ''Infotrac. Digital. 1 Nov. 2013. "Common Sense Cover." Photo. ''Stanford Library. Digital. 1 Nov. 2013 Tindall, George Brown, Shi, David Emory. '' America: A Narrative History.'' 9th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2013. Print. Ramsay, Allan. “King George III in Coronation.” Painting. Wikipedia. 1762. Web. 3 Dec. 2013